Chain

I really had high hopes for this movie. In the description this film appeared to be one of the off-beat-but-poignant films that I love. However, this proved not to be the case. From the drawn-out opening scene until the anti-climactic end, "Chain" was about as exciting as watching paint sit in a can...it doesn't even warrant an "about as interesting as watching paint dry." When paint is left to dry, something may actually happen; bugs may get stuck in the paint or it could dry a weird color. The majority of this plot-lacking film was spent on pieced shots of random people in malls that could not even be considered a decent attempt at montage. It was as if I was watching a television switch channels on the life-is-dull-jump-out-of-your-window- network. I enjoy spending days in public places and love to watch strangers interact, scenes change and life progress. There is beauty in the mundane. But, apparently no one told this film crew who seemed determined to stage what should be spontaneous and ignores what should be staged. The idea behind this despairing maze of commercialism is a brilliant one; the execution is severely lacking.

I saw a rough cut of this at the Portland Experimental Film Festival, and while largely unedited, the footage I saw was some of the more honest and moving I've seen all year. While revolving around a fictional narrative, the film was shot in real locations(all of them large shopping multiplexes), and I was amazed to find out that while the filming took place in multiple countries, the common mall has become so homogenized that I could barely tell one place from another. The characters are believable, and it took me a while to figure out that it wasn't a straightforward documentary. This is a meditative, mature opus from Jem Cohen, in line with his earlier work Lost Book Found, where truth and fiction blend to compliment the overarching idea, which he stated at the screening he drew largely from ideas inspired by Walter Benjamin's "The Arcades Project." Beautiful stuff.

Endless shots of malls and hotels. The annoying student art film of Jem Cohen, better known for REM videos. Here are the allegedly parallel stories of a 31 year old Japanese business woman scouting for investment partners in the US for her "Corporation", verses a homeless American teenage runaway girl's travails. The Japanese woman's timid behavior towards her Corporate bosses is part of their society, and cannot be compared to the stupidity and laziness of the American girl. The Japanese woman has a future, the American girl could easily end up a prostitute. Now take this simple story and fill in about a hour's worth of footage of corporate chain stores (KFC, McDonalds, Marriot, etc) from Australia to Germany and I think our film maker found a way for various film companies to pay for his world wide vacation spree. Zero stars.

Though I watched this film only on TV, I was easily hypnotized by its beautiful pictures, its timing, and its sound. It's like a James Benning film with people in it. The film doesn't hurry you to get familiar with its two female characters and to take part in their lives. It might feel boring. But it might also feel just like your own situation or that of your friends. Modern society and its spaces, especially the urban landscapes (that look the same in each part of the world, we learn) are dissected and so reveal their lack of individual features that could people to identify with their habitat. You can use the time that the film gives you to become aware of this, and then go out and change your life to something meaningful. Which also might mean, that you have to leave before the film ends. In the credits you learn that everything was staged. Does it make a difference? Nope. I liked it very much.

This could be a compelling documentary, if it was a documentary. Most of the scenes of the characters seemed staged… because they were. I did like what I learned about the characters. We see one character struggling with homelessness and joblessness. We see the waning of the other's excitement about her corporate travel (a different kind of homelessness). I was interested in learning more about both, but the story telling is stingy. Maybe a third of the footage is of the two women. This film is very slow because there are too many shots of overweight pedestrians and too many establishing shots of parking lots, signs, and malls. Only in the credits did I realize it was not the same few malls, but since they all look the same, the bleakness added nothing but boredom.